Day 12: Sugar Wars

I just got back from my 10 mile run and it was goooood! I started off with two girls. One of them is the girl I leant the first phase of Body Revolution to and then she never used it. She's runs slower than I'm used to but it was fun because she's hilarious. We averaged between a 10:15 and 10:30 mile for the first 3.5 mile loop. After that, the other girl and I picked it up to about 8:30 for the next loop. We had the best conversation. I don't know her as well, but I think she's such a cool chick. That loop ended at 9 miles total including the first loop. I was considering just calling it a day and heading back in, but she encouraged me to finish out my 10 miles so I did a quick out and back by myself. That mile was about 7:40 so I finished strong.

I had to sleep last night because I've been exhausted the last couple of days. So no Rippid in 30 this morning by design. I'm going to do it tomorrow which will get me to my 5 times this week, but I kinda wanted to do Totally Ripped Core again this weekend and still have a rest day. I'll decide at the last minute if I do both or just one.

Yesterday I broke my no sugar streak (3 days in a row!) because the kids at my son's school handed cookies out to the parents who came to Volunteer Appreciation Day. I had 3. They were homemade chocolate chip and they were delicious. I went out last night and had a mojito. I read somewhere that it's a good low cal option at a bar, but it's just not as delicious as beer or a margarita. I was over 1800 calories for the day with the cookies and the mojito so that's too bad, but I'm not upset about it because I've been doing really well the rest of the week.

I'm trying to decide how I'm going to do this no sugar challenge. I could either see how long I can keep a streak going with no treats at all or I could just plan on one serving of something sweet per week. One thing I know about myself is that eating anything sweet makes me immediately crave more sweet things to the point where I can barely contain myself so staying away altogether seems smart, but there are those special occasions where sharing a treat with friends is fun and I don't want to be the sort of person who fears food. Maybe I can see how long I can keep a one serving of sweets per week plan going.

And with that in mind, here's something awesome that the 2nd runner girl sent me that is totally related and made my day: http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/10/god-of-cake.html

Day 11: Busting Out the Garmin

I used a Garmin on my run yesterday just out of curiosity. These are the watches that tell you how fast and how far you're going. Mine estimates calories burned too but I never believe those things.

Anyway, turns out I haven't lost as much speed as I thought. The loop I went on was almost exactly 7.5 miles and we finished it in almost exactly an hour. That's an average 8 min mile! I didn't even feel like I was going all out or pushing it too hard. I'm very happy about this.

On the flip side, I won't be running today. I found out there's a volunteer appreciation thing in my son's class and he's in a skit so I'm using my lunch break to go see that instead. I could've gotten up even earlier to run this morning, but I had trouble sleeping last night. Exercise is important, but not as important as kids and sleep.

I did do my Ripped in 30 workout this morning, of course. I had more trouble on the first cardio segment than yesterday. This is plank jacks then mountain climbers. It's a hard combo. I felt a little more with it later on and upped my weights from 8 to 10 for the last strength portion. Abs felt easy.

Food yesterday was great. I came in just barely under 1800 cals. No candy, no booze. This is 3 days in a row and I can feel a big difference, especially in my waist. I hopped on the scale out of curiosity and its moving in the right direction. More on that this weekend.

I hope to keep up the no candy thing through the work week at least but I'm going out tonight so I may have a beer. Don't know yet. I should probably make a plan for that.

Day 67: oops, I did it again

I'm signed up for another half marathon.

There was a mass email at work a few months ago saying our company would get a few free entries into the local rock n roll marathon in June. I thought "why not?" and threw my name into the hat.

I got picked. The race is the weekend after my other one. I've run it before and I like the course although I think they've changed it up since I ran it. I think it will be fun and a good way to kick off the summer as long as I don't think too much about the fact that I'm running two half marathons in two weekends.

Workout 9 for the last time this morning. It's all double digits from here. I really liked the downward dog series. It feels good and I get bummed that we only do the sequence once each time around. Im noticing a theme - I like the yoga moves.

Does anyone know of a good yoga DVD?

Day 64: I signed up for a 1/2 marathon

I have a friend who loves to run ultramarathons. Her last race was 50k. That's definitely not my thing, but I think it's really cool that she's into it. I've run two marathons before and I'll probably do it again someday, but the training commitment is just too much for me right now. I love what lifting weights does for my body and I don't want to give that up so I can plod along for 3 hours on a Saturday morning.

Anyway, this friend is running a 50 mile race on June 16th and asked a bunch of ladies we work with to come camping and running with her. I decided on the 1/2 marathon distance. I was considering just doing the 10k, but if I'm going to be driving a couple of hours I may as well just do it, right? I've got 7 weeks to train so I'll probably try to get a couple 10 to 12 mile runs in on weekends and be more consistent with my running during the week.

Did I mention the race sponsor is a winery? So that's a bonus.

Speaking of friends, that other friend who I leant phase 1 of Body Revolution to still has it sitting on her desk. Yep, didn't even bring it home. I know she's running more and eating better so I'm glad she's got that going for her. It's not like I need it anytime soon.  Still, though.

Workout 9 was this morning. I must be a sicko because I LOVE the jumping jack pushups. They're completely ridiculous and hard and I can do them all! This is my 2nd week of discs 9 and 10 and I already feel like I've been doing them forever. Usually the 2 week timespan goes by so quickly. Last week threw me for a loop.

Speaking of last week, I ate a lot of sugar. Way too much. I was so far off my game that whole week. I'm really glad it's over.  Another reason I must be a sicko - I love Mondays. It feels like a fresh start and I'm so ready for it.